Man pleads guilty to DUI on same road he killed 4 in 1999 DUI

Walter Depner, who served 12 years in prison for killing four people in 1999 while driving drunk, pleaded guilty today to again driving under the influence on the same road last year.

Walter Depner, who served 12 years in prison for killing four people in 1999 while driving drunk, pleaded guilty today to again driving under the influence on the same road last year. (McHenry County sheriff's department)

Amanda MarrazzoSpecial to the Tribune

Walter Depner, who served 12 years in prison for killing four people in 1999 while driving drunk, pleaded guilty today to again driving under the influence on the same road in 2013.

Depner, 62, waived his right to a jury trial that was set to begin today in McHenry County and pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated driving under the influence.

In exchange for the plea, the state dropped two additional charges of aggravated driving under the influence and felony driving while license revoked.

Immediately after the plea, Depner's bond was revoked and he was taken into custody by McHenry County sheriff deputies.

Depner faces five to 10 years in prison at his sentencing, which is set for Aug. 29.

Assistant State's Attorney David Metnick told Judge Gordon Graham that had witnesses been called to trial they would have testified to seeing Depner erratically driving a pickup truck east on Illinois Highway 120 in the McHenry County village of Lakemoor.

Witnesses traveling behind Depner's truck would have said it was about 6:15 p.m. Feb. 24, 2013, when they watched as Depner drove into a ditch and then hit a snow bank in the parking lot of an auto parts store, Metnick said.

Witnesses also would have testified that Depner showed up at the home of an old friend in his former Lakemoor neighborhood, three doors down from the auto parts store, crying, slumped over and stumbling. Witnesses in the home and a police officer who was called to the home said he was mumbling and talking about the accident he had caused in which four members of the Burleson family were killed, Metnick said.

Depner was driving drunk when he caused the accident that killed three children and their mother while they drove home from Six Flags Great America in Gurnee in 1999. His vehicle slammed head-on into the family's vehicle on Illinois Highway 120 - the same road on which he pleaded guilty today to driving under the influence in 2013.

The driver, Thomas Burleson, though seriously injured was the only survivor in the car. The crash killed his wife, Eva Marie, 34, and the couple's three children, Daniel, 13, Tiffany, 11, and Dallis, 7.

During today’s plea, Metnick told the judge that Depner - while still on parole for the 1999 fatality - admitted to drinking alcohol and taking between 30 and 40 Klonopin pills on the night of Feb. 24 before taking his girlfriend’s truck and driving from her home in Richmond to his old neighborhood in Lakemoor.

A blood alcohol test showed Depner had a blood alcohol level of .03.

At a recent preliminary hearing, Todd Knoll, who lives in the Lakemoor home where Depner arrived unannounced that evening, said Depner was "slurring, crying" and "seemed severely depressed."